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desk--then heard a scream of triumph from him. The sketches were Rembrandts! He had them copied out of a book of drawings by Rembrandt, and, oh, was he triumphant! He had his ample revenge. I was very pleased. It was terribly funny and Bob got such pleasure out. of this...getting even with me.

The other story about Beloved Friend is an interesting sidelight on publishing. Dick Simon, who had been so important in my life since he had introduced me to Horace Liveright, was a great piano player--beautiful piano player. He was really a musician more than a publisher. He never read a book in his life, but he did play the piano magnificently. When he heard that we were publishing Beloved Friend and that it was going to be a Book-of-the-Month Club choice, he called up Irita Van Doren, head of The Herald Tribune book department, and said that he would like to review Beloved Friend for her. Irita said, “This is rather unusual for one publisher to review another publisher's book, and I'll have to ask Bennett and Bob Haas's permission. So she called me up, and I said, “This is Bob's book. He has to decide.” Bob said, “I'll be delighted to have Dick do the review. He knows music very well. Very good;” So he was given the assignment.

The day before the review was due--Irita saved the front page for it, a Book-of-the-Month Club choice, Catherine Drinker Bowen, a book about Tchaikovsky--Irita called up Dick Simon and Dick said, “Oh, I meant to tell you. I decided that I can't do the review. I haven't got the time.”





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